Comics Scholarship Bibliography​

What follows is a list of English-language comics scholarship published roughly from January 2017 to July 2018. Future installments of this bibliography will roll out on a six-month schedule, with the next set to appear in late January 2019, covering July-December 2018. Comics studies is a rapidly expanding interdisciplinary field, and this resource is intended to highlight the recent work in comics studies produced by scholars working in diverse departments, fields, and institutions. The bibliography is organized in two sections: one for monographs and edited collections, and another for peer-reviewed journal articles and essays from scholarly anthologies not primarily devoted to comics.

We compiled these citations by examining several comics-focused academic book publishers and journals and by issuing a call through various online platforms for comics scholars to submit citations. Because we relied heavily on self-reporting for this inaugural list, it is not comprehensive. Rather, it provides an overview of current work in the field and a place for scholars to search for connections, parallels, and affinities to their own work. For scholars looking to expand their inquiries with a searchable database focused on comics, the Bonn Online Bibliography of Comics Researchis an eminently useful resource, and scholars may wish to consult the MLA International Bibliography, Art Full Text, and other such more general databases.​If your work was left out of this edition of the list, please submit a citation to ICAFbib@gmail.com in the most recent MLA format and we will include it in the next update.

Monographs and Edited Collections

Abate, Michelle Ann, and Gwen Athene Tarbox, editors. Graphic Novels for Children and Young Adults: A Collection of Critical Essays. University Press of Mississippi, 2017.

Desplanque, Simon. “World War II in French Collective Memory: The Relevance of Alternate History Comics. An Analysis of the Wunderwaffen Saga.” International Journal of Comic Art, vol. 19, no. 1, 2017, pp. 27-289.

dos Santos, Mariana Pino. “Painting Comics as a ‘Permanent Commentary on the State of the Arts.” Writing Comics into Art History and Art History into Comics Research, a special issue of Konsthistorisk tidskrift/Journal of Art History, vol. 86, no. 1, 2017, pp. 45-66.

Eedy, Sean. "Four colour anti-fascism: Postwar narratives and the obfuscation of the Holocaust in East German comics." Beyond Maus: Comic Books, Graphic Novels, and the Holocaust, a special issue of Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, vol. 17, no. 1, 2018, pp. 24–35.

Fernandes, Cristiana de Almeida, et al. “Early Censorship of Comics in Brazil and Spain and Their Use as an Educational Resource as an Escape.” International Journal of Comic Art, vol. 19, no. 1, 2017, pp. 13-158.

Hughes, Richard, Meghan Hawkins, and Katie Lopez. “History, Literacy, and Popular Culture: Using Graphic Novels to Teach the Struggle for Racial Justice.” Educating through Popular Culture: You’re Not Cool Just Because You Teach with Comics, edited by Edward Janak and Ludovic A. Sourdot, Lexington, 2017, pp. 21-40.

MacInnes, Iain A. “’For He Bestirred Himself to Protect the Land from the Moors’: Depicting the Medieval Reconquista in Modern Spanish Graphic Novels.” European Comic Art, vol. 11, no. 1, 2018, pp. 48-65.

Ribbens, Kees. "Picturing anti-Semitism in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands: Anti-Jewish stereotyping in a racist Second World War comic strip." Beyond Maus: Comic Books, Graphic Novels, and the Holocaust, a special issue of Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, vol. 17, no. 1, 2018, pp. 8-23.

Sommerland, Yiva and Margareta Wallin Wictorin. “Writing Comics into Art History and Art History into Comics Research.” Writing Comics into Art History and Art History into Comics Research, a special issue of Konsthistorisk tidskrift/Journal of Art History, vol. 86, no. 1, 2017, pp. 1-5.

Sundberg, Martin. "The Collapse of the Word-Image Dichotomy: Towards an Iconic Approach to Graphic Novels and Artists’ Books." Writing Comics into Art History and Art History into Comics Research, a special issue of Konsthistorisk tidskrift/Journal of Art History, vol. 86, no. 1, 2017, pp. 31–44.

Suzuki, Shige (CJ). “Gekiga, or Japanese Alternative Comics: The Mediascape of Japanese Counterculture.” Introducing Japanese Popular Culture, edited by Alisa Freedman and Toby Slade, Routledge, 2017, pp. 265-276.

von Rosen, Astrid. “Warburgian Vertigo: Devising an Activist Historical Methodology by Way of Analysing the ‘Zine’ Family Fun.” Writing Comics into Art History and Art History into Comics Research, a special issue of Konsthistorisk tidskrift/Journal of Art History, vol. 86, no. 1, 2017, pp. 6-30.